Epic Grace… Again!

Today was meant to be a day of cleaning, laundry, sheet-changing, some fall baking… a list that was way too long, but sounded wonderfully domestic! Well, I managed to get a few loads in the laundry (and they are waiting to be folded), tidy up the kitchen and rearrange the living room. Next on my list was to dismantle the mantle and get fall going in my house. Unable to locate the crate that holds the summer birds, I sat down in my newly arranged living room to rethink my next move.

That’s when it happened! Sitting on my freshly dusted and arranged side table was “the book.” The book that captivated my heart this summer as I read it early as part of the launch team. The book that opened me up raw and ready for God to take me to a deep place of intimacy and grace. The book that I’ve given to friends and have more copies to mail off this week. The book written by my pastor and friend, Kurt Bubna.

Epic Grace – Chronicles of a Recovering Idiot.

My eyes caught the title and my mind began to think about grace. When I close my eyes and think about “grace,” I’m a bit overwhelmed with what it really means. It is a term that seems to be used more freely these days. A dear friend and colleague will say to me when things are tense at school, “I’m sprinkling you with grace.” I think about my ability (and at times my inability) to extend grace to others.

With my mind completely distracted by “the book” sitting near me, I abandoned my list of chores and picked up Epic Grace. I began reading Chapter 1; this time in a real copy of the book. Over the summer I read a PDF. Now I can highlight and underline and make notes… my favorite thing to do in a good book!

Grace suddenly took on new meaning for me today. I prayed before I began reading that I could get a clearer picture of what grace really is. Page 2 jumped out at me and this is what I read.

God’s gentle grace comforts us when we are deeply wounded.
His larger-than-life grace covers us when we are wrestling with hardships.
His empowering grace helps us to stay the course when the going gets tough.
And God’s epic grace shows us how to rise above our pain and circumstances with enduring hope and faith in him.

I had to stop and read those again. What a great pictures of the layers of grace that we experience…especiallly while suffering through difficult times. Grace. It’s gentle… larger-than-life… empowering… EPIC.

This past summer I received each of those gifts of grace as Jesus guided me through a difficult season. In the midst of my suffering, He taught me to persevere. That was only possible through His grace. It was gentle, larger-than-life, empowering and epic.

This afternoon I continued on through chapter 1 and cried my way to the end. Kurt’s journey of grace in this very first chapter once again stole my heart and took me to the foot of the cross. I wept as he spoke of a tremendous loss in his life. I continued to weep as he wrote about a woman who lived a difficult life, but saw every day as another day to show her Jesus who much she loved him.

Every day is another day to show my Jesus how much I love him. Once again, I’m wrecked! One simple truth shared and today I’m looking at my day through different eyes and with a grace-soaked heart… and I’m only in chapter 1.

If you have any desire to laugh, cry, and experience God’s epic grace, I strongly encourage you to get yourself a copy of this amazing book. It will draw you in and pierce your heart with God’s gentle, larger-than-life, empowering and epic grace.

#epicgrace
http://www.kurtbubna.com/the-book